The Philosopher Stories

by Jerry Levy

The dozen stories in this collection chronicle the life of Karl Pringle, a wannabe philosopher who had once been enrolled in the graduate Philosophy program at the University of Toronto where he imagined himself as an Ubermensch, a Superman derived from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche. But he was summarily dismissed from the program after punching out his academic supervisor. Now Karl lives in a decrepit apartment above a butcher shop in Toronto’s Kensington Market, is unemployed and very much rootless. The stories in The Philosopher Stories follow Karl as he moves from one strange episode to another, none of which end well. Although Karl likes to think of himself as an Ubermensch, in the bleakest moments following his many mishaps, he seems to know better, that perhaps he is only fooling himself with his grandiose dreams. That he is nothing more than one of life’s rejects, an out-and-out failure. Nuanced and multilayered, funny and yet achingly sad, these stories depict a young man grappling with life’s big questions, including love, finding a place for oneself in an uncaring world, morality, success, and fate.

232 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2024

About the author

Here's a little bit about me: Originally from Montreal, I now reside in Toronto, Ontario, and am happily retired from the corporate world. But I've always loved writing prose and to that end, have published many stories in various literary magazines/anthologies. And in the fall of 2013, a collection of 14 stories - Urban Legend - was published by Canadian publisher Thistledown Press. My second collection of short stories The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, was published by Guernica Editions (Toronto) in 2020. My third collection The Philosopher Stories, was also published Guernica in 2024.

For many years now I've served as a judge for the Writer's Union of Canada's annual Short Prose Contest. And I occasionally do a similar task for an organization called Ve'ahavta, judging short stories from people who are marginalized and who have experienced homelessness at some point. I also am a regular contributor of book reviews for the Ottawa Review of Books.

I have a B.Comm. degree and a teaching certificate (Teaching English as a Second Language).

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karl Pringle, the luckless misfit at the centre of Jerry Levy’s collection of linked short fiction, The Philosopher Stories, is someone most of us can identify with, regardless of (or maybe because of) the fact that he is often deceitful, sometimes deluded, and pretty much always mired in a sinkhole of self-pity. The collection chronicles Karl’s life from boyhood to early manhood and kicks off with “Family Life,” in which we learn that Karl is the sole offspring of Roma immigrants from Hungary and that his parents fled to Canada to escape racist persecution. From the beginning, Karl’s origins set him apart. Significantly, Karl confesses that he’s always felt like an outsider, someone who wants desperately to belong but has no idea how to make it happen. To compensate for his social awkwardness and status as an outcast, he makes up stories about himself, as a child telling people he’s from a distant star system called the Pleiades. This tall tale is just the first of Karl’s many ruses to collapse embarrassingly in the face of reality. Karl grows up drawn to abstractions and speculative thinking and eventually enrols in the Philosophy program at the University of Toronto. The study of high concepts and expansive questions about existence suits Karl well because it provides distance from social intimacy and the minutiae of daily life. But his studies come to an untimely end when a quarrel with his thesis supervisor (who accuses him of “mucking around” in graduate school for the last six years) escalates to blows (“One Punch”). In the stories that follow, Karl, expelled from university, unemployed, adrift, and living in a ramshackle apartment above a butcher in Toronto’s Kensington Market, plots ways to solve his financial problems and somehow live up to his self-proclaimed image as a philosophical genius and Übermensch in a world that pays him little heed, that is until he violates its rules governing appropriate public behaviour. Throughout the volume, Karl tries to offset his failures with schemes aimed at bringing in money and/or putting a shine on his tarnished self-image. These include ransacking the city’s little free libraries for books that he can sell for personal profit (“The Book Sale”), plundering the writings of a dead drug user and presenting them to the world as his own (“The Story Thief”), and taking a break from the stress of the city and moving to the countryside, where for a time he lives in a cave and survives on chickens stolen from a nearby farm (“Rejection”). But his schemes inevitably misfire and drive poor Karl to more angst and soul-searching. Levy’s previous collection, The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, displayed his skill at creating far-fetched scenarios and carrying them through to surprising conclusions that, more often than not, leave his hapless hero’s life and ego in tatters. The Philosopher Stories aims for similar effect, though here the comedy is occasionally undercut ever so slightly by a bittersweet edge, giving these stories more depth and nuance.

The Philosopher Stories, written in a breezy conversational style that goes down easily and carries the reader along, highlights human weakness and folly in a highly entertaining manner. We do not admire Karl Pringle, not by a long stretch. But do we like him? Given the chance, would we willingly spend time with him should we encounter him in real life? Not likely. He’s selfish, impulsive, conniving and frequently the author of his own undoing. But despite this, there can be no disputing the fact that Jerry Levy has written a volume of raucously engaging short fiction that will leave you pondering life’s important questions.

[Ink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Philosopher Stories by Jerry Levy is a collection of short stories about Karl, a complicated character who perceives himself as a philosopher and as the description of the book puts it, an "ubermensch" which is exactly where the book begins, when Karl's teacher calls his mother into school because he has been telling everyone he is actually from a far away star system.

"Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise" was a sign hanging in the bookstore in the short story "when she left" and this isexactly how I feel about this book. Perhaps it is not the writing style I usually gel with, perhaps the authors actions and observations were not clicking with my preferences, but what I really liked was the raw authenticity of the stories.

If you look beyond the mind flow, there is a lot of insight in these stories and a lot that the reader is able to reflect upon, disagree with and build on. It is interesting, entertaining. When I refer to the authenticity, an example is the clear flow of thoughts without reshaping or polishing to fit a mould, it is like each story poured from Levy's mind into Karls character and actions and that was it, that part done

I enjoyed this type of authenticity that is essentially the backbone of the book that ties the stories together. The weird kid whose dad was not around, was close to his mom, determined his path throughout life. Behaviour of stepdads determined his outlook while he still retained that desire to be something else, someone else.

The Philosopher Stories is a good read in the sense of observing an observer writing about an observer who sees themselves as apart from soceity and others. Seeing how their mind is processing their thoughts without restraint. I did not directly relate to Karl. At times he was pretentious, a little irksome, quick with his fists, but always speaking with integrity and just a little bit of wry humour

Thank you to Netgalley, Guernica Editions and Jerry Levy for this interesting ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

[Ann Fetherston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerry Levy continues to write engaging books of short stories. This latest one is told by the same narrator, Karl, throughout. The stories are ironic, funny, off-beat, sad and sometimes frustrating as I frequently wanted to shake Karl. He would then redeem himself or make me laugh. There are some ridiculous situations that show that Levy is having fun with his character and us. He describes the lost and lonely ones of the world. Although the stories stand on their own they are linked through Karl. I had hopes by the end that Karl might actually find love and happiness. It is a good read.

[Lori Hahnel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gritty yet touching collection, delivered with wry humour, empathy, and a touch of absurdity, is a delight. 4.5 stars!